Universities collaborate to gain research prospects

A new collaboration will enable Illinois college students to have a larger role in research at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.

Northwestern has joined the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago to create the Science Policy Council. The joint effort will enhance Argonne, the Department of Energy and the state of Illinois, said Thomas Rosenbaum, University of Chicago physicist and vice president for research at Argonne.

“It will make the state more competitive for federal funding,” Rosenbaum said. “(The collaboration) will permit us to do together what we can’t do apart.”

The council formalizes and deepens the collaboration, Rosenbaum said. Though University of Chicago will continue to be the sole manager of Argonne, the presidents and senior administrators of both NU and University of Illinois will be part of the board of management. Similar to a corporation, the Argonne Board helps recruit new members from academic and industrial sectors.

Argonne is a 1,500 acre facility in DuPage County, Ill. It currently conducts studies of nano-scale materials and advanced photons found in X-rays.

“Argonne is one of the great scientific resources of the nation, spanning a broad spectrum of science and technology with energy,” Rosenbaum said. “The scale of the project is something you couldn’t find on a university campus.”

Tech prof, students create hydrogen energy fuel cell

A cost-effective, clean fuel source may be on its way.

NU materials science and engineering professor Scott Barnett and graduate student Zhongliang Zhan have developed a new solid oxide fuel cell, or SOFC, that converts iso-octane, a fuel similar to gasoline, into hydrogen. The fuel cell uses the hydrogen to produce energy.

“It has to be developed quite a bit more before it can be put to use in automobiles or at home,” said Barnett.

The cells are projected to be more efficient than any other alternative fuel source available now. Higher fuel efficiencies mean less fuel is used and less carbon dioxide is produced.

“The gas-electric hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells don’t provide an improvement in terms of fuel efficiency, which contribute to the greenhouse effect,” Barnett said. “The key thing is (the SOFC) could lead to lower carbon dioxide emissions.”

The fuel cell is similar to what Delphi, a transportation technology company, is trying to implement in a high-end BMW automobile within two years.

“If we worked hard, we could hopefully be looking at application in a few years,” Barnett said.

— Elizabeth Sabrio